


Fever Pitch

by meikahidenori



Series: Thunderbirds are go AU [14]
Category: thunderbirds are go
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-14
Updated: 2016-07-14
Packaged: 2018-07-24 01:16:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7487646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meikahidenori/pseuds/meikahidenori
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>after a mission gone wrong Kayo realises John sees her as more than just a sister.</p><p>Implied sex ( so if you rather not read this then it's fine ) set after 'accepting embarassment'</p><p>ages are as follows: Alan 18, Gordon 24, Kayo 22, Virgil 25, John 27 and Scott 28</p><p>Yes there is a big age gap between them... but in this case it doesn't matter too much.</p><p>accept there will be spelling mistakes all over the damn place.... google docs wasn't working so had to finish it in open office were my dictonaries are still not working.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fever Pitch

Kayo stood by John’s bedroom door, watching the second oldest Tracy struggling to sleep. Gordon said it should pass, but Kayo felt otherwise. She had been unaware that he had been struggling badly keeping up with them on missions till yesterday when things had gone from mildly dangerous to almost deadly. The events of the mission had made his condition far worse than it would have been.

The other’s had told her on numerous occasions that when doing something with John they need to be extra careful as he would figure out some way to do something stupidly dangerous just to get the rescue done. True enough they all would, but she didn’t realise how far he would go, bordering on the verge of insanity.

She knew he would risk his own life if push came to shove, that’s how he lost his leg saving Alan last year but most missions she had been with him on where pretty tame in comparison to that so complacency had set in when they went out to try and reroute the signals coming from a weather station based in the desert of Iran. That was a big mistake.

It should have been a simple case of plugging into the controls of the place and fixing whatever virus had taken the facility over. Kayo’s sole role in the entire operation was just to get John there and back after he fixed whatever was going on. Pretty routine and nothing as exciting as that the other Tracy's were doing at the time.

The weather station unfortunately had everything to do with the trouble that the other boys were dealing with. The Hood had taken over and had turned the station into something that not just predicted weather, but created it, causing havoc all over the world.

The Hoods leader, her uncle, had thought it was laughable that she and whom he thought was the weakest member in the Tracy family had come to stop him. 

He was proved wrong.

While her uncle was busy berating her and slandering John, the brainiac had already wired himself into the computer systems of the facility and had managed to take complete control of it taking the Hood completely by surprise. When the Hood realised that escape was impossible he sent the whole facilities power into overload.

John got electrocuted. Lucky Brains had made sure that his suit would shut off in the event of a powersurge, but it was so full of electronics, wires and connections that John still got badly hurt. The device that had used brainwave controls had left burns to the back of his head and neck, the suit itself left his skin covered in third degree burns and where Brains’s magnificent inbuilt computer was stored in the right prosthetic leg had not only burned what was left of the original limb, but had managed to damage the nerve endings that it had been connected too.

When Brains was assessing the full extent of the injuries in the medial bay back at base, he had found something else too. Something both Gordon and Alan sheepishly had been keeping a secret, as they had been helping John try and fix it themselves in their spare time but to no avail.

That was why he couldn’t stay still in his sleep.

Kayo sat down on the bed in the darkness and ran her head over her adoptive siblings forehead, covered in sweat and high in feaver. It was weird, him being the one in such a bad way… she was used to it being the other way around, John picking up after her and his brothers and making sure they were all fighting fit after they had been ill or injured in the line of duty and it wasn’t the first time John himself had been completely laid up and out of action.. It was that this time she felt it was mostly her fault.

The others had work to do and had mostly left him to rest, but Kayo just couldn’t seem to. She had never made a mistake that almost got someone killed before.

It would have been so much easier if she was little again. Then it wouldn’t be weird crawling up under the blankets to cuddle him in hopes that he would relax and get some proper sleep. Granted, no one would have said a word anyway, but after this past year things between her and John had been getting rather hard when it came to the whole family relationship department.

It started on the vacation on that ocean liner three months after he lost his leg. He’d been getting pretty close with Lady Penelope till she dropped him like a stone… or rather, admitted that she liked his brothers Scott and Gordon far more and that while he was a nice guy, the fact they live two very different lives would never allow anything to really work out.

Kayo remembered the whole conversation they had about what sort of relationship each other wanted. She hadn’t realised it then, but the whole notion of openly talking about something that was far more personal than the usual fair had started a tiny spark between them. It didn’t take long for it to flare into life before the end of that trip either, Kayo kissing him there in the moonlight on the boat. She still had no idea why she did that. It was impulse and just seemed like a good idea at the time.

She wouldn’t have thought anything of it if it hadn’t been for Lady Penelope’s lingerie party. Till then, John was always the sibling that was fully dressed, occasionally in non sensible clothing from time to time, but dressed all the same. Sure she heard about the parties, but had never expected to see so much of him before. He might have felt the same too, he spent several weeks holed up on Thunderbird five without any communication because he was so embarrassed and humiliated. Not that he had not done worse prior to that as Kayo had not been aware of until Muffy’s Bachelorette party.

Things had been awkward ever since. Sure they still got along and functioned like normal people but when alone in a room together or when alcohol was floating around, things threatened to surface. He had even once kissed her in front of the rest of the boys to prove a point, and thank goodness they were all too drunk to remember it.

That’s what all these missions she had taken on with him were for. Now that Alan could take turns doing duties in space, it meant they could do a lot more ground operations that involved situations for the more computer tech inclined… and she had been fine with that they were also stealth related, stuff that was right up her alley.

At home however, things between them were pretty strained, and it was pretty clear even to someone like Gordon that something was seriously going on between them. They avoided each other and just never spoke when they were in the same room. Scott even pulled her aside to ask her if there was any problems she was having with John as his brother was terrible at hiding his feelings from him and he knew something was slowly eating him alive. Turns out it was more than just Kayo herself, but the issue wasn’t going to ever go away until they spoke to each other and tried to discuss it, ending this weirdness once and for all.

Kayo always liked Scott. He was the one who was always in control, knew what was going on and was always at the heart of things. She had never considered that any of the other Tracy's had feelings for her other than her being a sibling until John openly asked her what the deal was.

She never truly answered him either, making something up about age difference.

She also had never seen him so hurt before. For the first time, she had to come to terms with the reality that the other boys might possibly think of her as more than just a sister.

It had taken John to show her that.

Yesterday when her uncle whom she hated for being the evil leader of some hideous organization that wants to take over the world started making a mockery of John to his face she wished she could have died. She was ashamed to be related to that man and wished more and more she was truly related to her adoptive family. They made her feel welcome and loved, something he never did. She wanted to shake him and scream that the person he was harassing wasn’t weak at all, but had the strongest personality of anyone she had ever met.

She didn’t understand why she wanted to so badly till now.

It shouldn’t have taken so long, but it had. John’s feelings for her had always been there, never wavering, just waiting for that little flame to set them ablaze. No matter how much he loved his brothers, he always had a place for her too.

Kayo ran her fingers through his hair and down his cheek, resting her palm so it cradled his chin. She watched him sturr and just before his eyes opened she leaned down and kissed him.

He always had a place in his heart for her… in a way she had a place for him too, it just needed the extra wiggle room to grow.

He looked a little confused in his feverish state, but was still cluey enough to know what was going on. She knew he would let her lead, his heart was something he knew she wouldn’t dare take for granted.

Kayo knew the risks involved, she had left the door open and that the other brothers were floating around the house, but she didn’t care. They knew something was up so maybe this would be a welcome surprise.

“Can I call you Jonathan?” she whispered. That was his real name that he never let anyone use. Maybe this one time he’ll relent on it. He replied by kissing her back. Even though he wasn’t well, there was no lack of passion in it.

“I take that as a yes?”

She could feel his arms move under the blankets in an effort to pull them out to hug her. She took that as an invite to crawl beneath the blankets with him and cuddle in close.

***

“Personally I can’t see why my niece continues to waste her time with International Rescue when they leave her to do something as delicate as mess up my plans with the failure child.” Agent forty seven walked around John who was being held by two robots under his control. I know all about you, Jonathan Tracy - the boy who walks in everyone’s shadows.. Even the ones of your own father.”

Kayo tried to tell John not to listen to him as she tapped her communicator. She was down the other end of the facility awaiting the signal to reboot the weather stations power, and so far had to fend of her uncle's newest mechanical recruits from getting to the mains. She realised that John must have his feedback channel muted as she could only hear what was going on and couldn’t get her own transmissions through.

“You must be the biggest disappointment to both your parents and your family. You’re not even a proper astronaut, just merely a qualified test pilot and instructor and a writer of a few measly astronomy books. Compared to your brother’s you’re nothing special, heh, even your younger brother took the youngest pilot in history honor off you… tell me… how did that feel knowing that even a kid with a eight year age gap between you and them was better at flying a rocket ship than you were?”

Kayo ran down the corridors, she had to get him out of there before the Hood did something to him. The conversation she could hear so far had been mostly one sided, dread filling her bones fueling her to run faster. It it was Scott, Gordon or Alan there would be shouting and fighting back of some kind, if it was Virgil he’d be trying to negotiate and twist the Hood’s words back at him…. But John’s complete radio silence was disturbing.

“What’s a matter Tracy? Wait, you don’t deserve to call yourself a Tracy do you? Maybe that’s why they need my niece, to make up for the utter pathetic excuse you turned out to be.” 

“You live with the hand you get dealt. Life isn’t meant to be fair, nor is everything as it seems on the outside looking in.”

“PFTT! You sound like my pathetic brother!”

“Kyrano wasn’t pathetic. He was a good man and a great teacher.”

“HAHAH! Don’t make me laugh, what did he teach you? How to be a loser in life? It wasn’t anything to do with strength, intelligence, honour or bravery.”

“Patience” 

***  
That one word meant so much. Kayo knew at the time even though she couldn't see him, he had that distinct ‘checkmate’ smile on his face that he had when he knew he got you exactly where he wanted. 

She ran her hand over his long thin jumper that Virgil had put him in before bringing him to his room, the top was so long it was loose and stretched down to his knees. It looked like an old fashioned night shirt the way he chose to wear it, but having it half hang off his shoulders looked slightly ridiculous to her. It was a hilarious attempt at rebellion she used to think, but now, it was just a small quirk about his inward facing personality that people rarely got to see.

***  
“A person’s heart is a bit like opening Pandora’s box. You never know what’s inside it until you’re granted a key. Good, bad, whatever, the important thing is that you’re so careful when you open it that you don’t accidentally disturb any daemons on the inside that want to prevent you from finding the true spirit of the person within.”  
***

Kayo smiled. John knew how to say the stupidest most corny things and mean every single word.

Lying next to him was a little strange, she had not done so since she was twelve because it wasn’t appropriate for girls to do so. That was her mother’s mind set and by the time she was old enough she understood why she thought it was too inappropriate to do otherwise. Admittedly she missed it, cuddling into John used to be the thing you did when you couldn’t get to sleep at night, and on occasion even now, some of the other boys still did despite no longer being tiny anymore. Sometimes a rescue goes wrong or a call is so close that it makes you have nightmares and what if styled dreams that would make you scream long and hard into your pillow till you tried to suffocate yourself. 

That’s when you wound up in his room under the covers. Not in Scott’s room of organised destructive chaos, Not in Virgil's sanctuary of zen… but Johns. It was a safe zone where all the monsters just slunk away the moment you stepped in the doorway. Even Alan’s bedroom didn’t have the massive amounts of child’s drawings on the walls and family photographs and even one painting Virgil made sure John kept specifically for his bedroom, the only image of himself that was not dressed in International Rescue colours, but in his Pyjamas sleeping on a old couch. It was like a small child still slept in that room and not a twenty seven year old.

She felt him shiver as another wave of fever hit and buried his golden red hair into her chest to stop him shaking. In a way the room reflected his personality, a small child trying to act like a grown up. Even now despite the huge age difference she felt she was trying to soothe him and tell him everything was going to be fine. Funny how tonight it’s the other way around, like she was trying to make up for years of trying to find someone to trust her… and yet she never really had to look that far.

She ran her fingers under the jumper and over the bandages, trailing pattern along his spine surprised she was getting a reaction in response to them. He was attempting to do the same in kind, lazily running his finger nails across her shirt, trying to imitate the same patterns she was doing. Without the need for words, he was trying to flirt with her.

She couldn’t hide her smile. It was sweet in it’s own little way that he was trying to make her feel comfortable with the way that he was. She ran her fingers down the length of his body and quickly tried to pull her hand away but was stopped by his own and gently place back down on the area she jerked away from.... His missing right leg. It wasn’t forceful, but it was a polite way of indicating to her that she needs to accept some things about him before this adventure goes any further. It was weird and unnatural to expect it from her but she knew that he’d shut her out if she couldn’t accept his injures. It was all, or nothing.

Keeping her hand there she kissed him, making sure she didn’t make the mistake of forgetting that once this went ahead the risks involved were very much real and she was willing to accept the consequences that were going to be attached. 

**

Scott poked his head in to check on his younger brother, as no one had the chance to for several hours. Gordon and Alan had been arguing science things with Brains and Virgil had gone off to the lab to try and find the drugs that they were going to need to play with to figure out a cure or at least something temporary to relive John on his illness.

Despite tidying his brother’s room for him, John still managed to have clothes on the floor. Scott was about to pick them up when he realised they didn’t all belong to his sibling. Unless John was in the habit of wearing a bra underneath his shirts of course. In the dark he could just make out another figure curled up under the covers, long black hair loose across the sheets.

It was Kayo… and she was naked.

Scott paused. He had no idea what to do. This was a surprise he was not expecting, and definitely not what he meant by ‘sorting things out between you’ when he pulled both of them aside yesterday morning before their mission that had become a total epic disaster.

He took in details, like the way John was holding onto her protectively and how she was willing to let someone hold her so close when she was at her most vulnerable, a state of being which, Kayo never ever wanted anyone to know she could be.

Scott shook his head and allowed a smile to sit on his face before closing the door behind him and heading back towards the living room, where both Gordon and Alan had given up for the time being and were gratefully accepting the offer of coffee from Virgil.

Alan noticed him entering the room first, and didn’t even wait for Scott to take a seat before he was firing questions in his eldest brother’s direction.

“How is he Scott? Has it gotten better or worse?”

“I didn’t really check, he was quite peaceful so I decided to leave him alone.”

“That means I’ll have to check later.” Virgil sighed as he sat himself down beside Alan on the couch.

Scott shook his head. “No. Kayo’s in there with him.”

“What did she have to say?”

“Nothing, she’s curled up on his bed asleep too.” Scott smiled sweetly. “She’s worried about him.”

“I don’t blame her, we all are.” Virgil said softly.

“Since when does Kayo set foot in John’s room? She hasn’t set foot in anyone's but her own since she was twelve!” Gordon looked suspicious. 

“Maybe because I cleaned it.” Scott snorted. “We are all messy as hell and I don’t blame her for not going in them. Especially yours. No one wants to see you pin up collection.”

“Or yours for that matter Scotty.” Alan smirked.

“I at least hide mine in the back of the wardrobe.” Scott chuckled. “But seriously, she’s been in a bit of a state since we had to recover them from that weather station… I don’t blame her for wanting to watch over him like the rest of us. Besides, it’s not that unusual, we all still end up in John’s room when he’s here on earth in one way or another.”

“That’s true.” Gordon relented. “I feel asleep in there last week with Alan ‘because we were all watching Zombie Brides from planet Heroux Vie.”

“Is that what you were watching?” Virgil seemed curious.

“Yes well you guys were watching ‘Game of Thrones’ down stairs and Johnny had just finished watching ‘Clever man’ with me.” Alan smiled. “That show was really good by the way, shame people didn’t get on it when it was first ever aired.”

“Yeah and John had dozed off halfway through the film because he was exhausted from being with Virgil on Thunderbird two most of the day.”

“That couldn’t have been helped.” Virgil shrugged. “Lady Penelope and Parker had got themselves sealed in another damn vault, only this time the only way we could get them alive without being burned in a huge ball of flames was with John’s help on the ground. The more advanced the technology gets the more I’m finding I’m relying on his skills more. Something tells me I need to go back to university like he did when Alan went to study.”

“He was only a lecturer at the place Virgil. He didn’t do another course in that time.” Alan replied. “I remember people telling me his mathematics classes while, the most interesting, were extremely difficult to pass. Being both a Mathematician and an Astrophysicist is a cruel combination to unleash on unwilling students.” he mused.

“Well in anycase, noone’s to go in there until Kayo wakes up ok?” Scott laid down the rules all nice and neat. “I think she needs a bit of time to accept the fact that it wasn’t entirely her fault.” And not get busted for having going the whole nine yards with their brother, he smiled to himself. He had seen that look on his sleeping siblings face many of times, feaver or not and it was a sign that if you mess with the status quo you were going to be on the receiving end of his wrath.

Eventually it was going to come out into the open. For now it was just his little secret, and one he was obliged to keep without ever needing to be asked.


End file.
